Exhibit: Art from the Ashes

The opening reception for Art from the Ashes: Finding Light in the Shadow of the Shoah will be held in the Fourth Floor Exhibition Gallery of the Golda Meir Library on Wednesday, February 19, 2014, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

The exhibit features the work of visual artist Helene Fischman,
a noted Bay-area artist and educator, and currently an MFA candidate
in the UWM Department of Art & Design, who established "artist
residencies" for herself in former Nazi territory, making former
concentration camps her studio.

In TerezĂ­n/Terezinstadt, Czech Republic, she created an artist
studio in a crumbling, former Nazi Barrack. In OĹ›wiÄ™cim/Auschwitz,
Poland, she spent two months painting in an old storage room formerly
used for munitions at the Auschwitz Jewish Center/Chevra Lomdei
Mishnayot, the town's only surviving synagogue.

In "Art from the Ashes," Fischman's artwork is an homage to those
lives lost in the Shoah, to the towns and shtetls that disappeared, and
also a tribute to an undying optimism inherent in those who held on to
life in the face of unfathomable horrors.

The exhibition will pair Fischmanâ€™s production from these
residencies in Europe with original WWII-era publications preserved in
the UWM Librariesâ€™ Special Collections as a physical manifestation of
art rising from the remnants of the past.

Fischman will also present an artistâ€™s talk in The Scholar and The Library Series on Friday, May 2, 2014, 2:00-3:00 p.m., Room E281, Golda Meir Library.

The exhibit, co-sponsored by the UWM Libraries and the UWM Stahl Center for Jewish Studies, runs from February 17 â€“ May 30, 2014. Gallery hours are 8:00 a.m. â€“ 5:00 p.m., Monday - Friday, or by appointment (414-229-4345 or libspecial@uwm.edu)

Poll

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